1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical instruments and, more specifically, to an adaptor to convert rotary input from a handle of a surgical instrument into linear output for a loading unit.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As medical and hospital costs continue to increase, surgeons are constantly striving to develop advanced surgical techniques. Advances in the surgical field are often related to the development of operative techniques which involve less invasive surgical procedures which reduce overall patient trauma. In this manner, the length of hospital stays and thus, medical costs can be significantly reduced.
One of the truly great advances to reduce the invasiveness of surgical procedures is endoscopic surgery. Endoscopic surgery involves performing surgical procedures through small incisions formed in body walls. There are many common endoscopic surgical procedures, including arthroscopy, laparoscopy (pelviscopy), gastroentroscopy and laryngobronchoscopy, just to name a few. Typically, trocars are utilized for creating incisions through which the endoscopic surgery is performed. Trocar tubes or cannula devices can be extended through the incisions to provide access for endoscopic surgical tools. A camera or endoscope can be inserted through a trocar tube to permit visual inspection and magnification of the body cavity. The surgeon can then perform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures at the surgical site with the aid of specialized instrumentation, such as, forceps, cutters, applicators, and the like which are designed to fit through additional cannulas.
In many surgical procedures, it is often necessary to suture body organs or tissue. Traditionally, suturing was accomplished by hand using a needle attached to a suture material. This procedure required open access to the tissue to be sutured. Upon the advent of endoscopic surgical procedures, endoscopic suturing instruments have been developed. The development of endoscopic suturing instruments is especially challenging because of the small openings through which the suturing of body organs or tissues must be accomplished.
A number of surgical device manufacturers have developed product lines with proprietary powered drive systems for operating and/or manipulating surgical devices. In many instances the surgical devices include a powered handle assembly, which is reusable, and a disposable loading unit or the like that is selectively connected to the powered handle assembly prior to use and then disconnected from the loading unit following use in order to be disposed of or in some instances sterilized for re-use.
Loading units for performing suturing procedures, endo-gastrointestinal anastomosis procedures, end-to-end anastomosis procedures, and transverse anastomosis procedures, typically require a linearly driven actuator to actuate the loading unit. As such, these loading units are not compatible with surgical devices and/or handle assemblies that have a rotary driven actuator.
In order to make linearly driven loading units compatible with powered surgical devices or handle assemblies that provide a rotary driven actuator, a need exists for adapters or adapter assemblies to interface between and interconnect the linearly driven loading units with the powered rotary driven surgical devices or handle assemblies.